Religion
Religion Religion is a rather distinct phenomenon in The Navel. However, despite the high amount of different sects and views on the matter, there is a common creational myth to all of them. What differs from one another then is the interpretation of the myth and how that shapes their morals and ethics. The Creational Myth The story itself is told in many different ways, but they all agree on five basic points: i) The Bright One created the world and to this day still emerges at dawn to watch over his creation until He goes back to His realm in the depths of the ocean; ii) when He created the world, the elements were all mixed up together in a chaotic mass, so He brought forth the gods, in order that they could sort out everything that exists from out of that primeval state; iii) the gods then shaped the land, created mountains and rivers -- and oceans, so that their Father could have a palace to rest, for in the beginning The Bright One stood motionless in the sky and it was always daytime; iv) at that point, night came into existence and, along with it, The Bright One's wife, The Silver Lady, was revealed; the cycle of life and death began and so the gods were able to create plants and animals and men, thus completing their Father's work; v) the gods then lived with men for some time, taught them how to survive and gave them gifts, but ultimately forsook them and left them forever. The Discrepancies There are many interpretations to the myth and many different views on it. Some are more far-fetched than others and not all of them mutually exclusive. In fact, even within a single sect many different takes coexist, sometimes even peacefully. According to The Oracular Scripture, the gods forsook mankind and left to The Frozen Continent when men broke the one and only rule that they had established: never to take possession of any precious stone or metal, but leave them be where they belong within the earth. The holy text explains that this was so because the gods knew that silver, gold, diamonds and the like would only cause one man to turn against the other, generating one war after the other so long as men coveted material gain. This is the reason, therefore, that The Oracle demands that their followers turn in some of their fortune in exchange for guidance. Although the most devout among them donate all their valuables to The Oracle, but most people take that doctrine with a grain of salt, donating whenever they feel the need to do so, but otherwise believing that, if the gods did not want men to have gold, they would not have created it at all. A different explanation, followed by The Mystics of the West, suggests that the gods did not leave to another continent, but rather flew up to the sky to join their Father, where they can be seen shining at night. According to this take on the matter, everything that sparkles should not be shunned, but rather revered, for they are the closest things to the gods and to The Bright One that a man will ever find upon the earth. Needless to say, this religious branch is favoured by merchants and anyone that would embrace a metaphysical reason to justify their love for wealth. For this reason, however, it is often not taken very seriously in any place other than in Whitestone and in certain parts of The Ring. Sailors and pirates, however, often adhere to a lighter version of this doctrine, worshipping stars and their Mother for the help they give them at sea, but often paying little or no respect to the tithing part of the dogma. The northerners, oddly enough, are not prone to believe that the gods live in The Frozen Continent. Being close to it and sometimes sailing near the land perhaps has given them the notion that there is nothing overly special there. Rather, they feel that if the gods are anywhere they must be in the megalithic stones that cover the grassy hills of their land. As a matter of fact, most of them believe that the stones are the gods themselves, turned into rock by the shame they felt for having created man, a creature that breeds war and terror upon all others and on her own kind as well. Only when mankind learns how to be nobler will the gods return to life and live among them once again. The South is perhaps the place where the notion of guilt or of some ancestral crime has the least acceptance. Verily, most southerners are too free-spirited to carry such a burden on their shoulders. Instead, they believe that the gods never left at all, but they are simply invisible to the eye and too busy keeping the world alive to bother with men. The most extremists of them believe that there is nothing that man can do to annoy or displease the gods, for they simply do not care. Most, however, feel that the gods are always watching and lending a helping hand to those that need it. In The Kingdom of the East, on the other hand, many feel that there is no need for gods at all. If The Bright One created everything that exists, He could very well have created it all organized already. This reluctance to worship the gods and to pay tribute to The Oracle was one of the reasons that drove the rest of the continent into The Holy Oracular War against Ashland. Since then, most people who follow this point of view have been less vocal about their beliefs. Other Religions It is said that the westerners got the belief of the gods being stars in the sky from their contact with the clawmen centuries ago. No one knows for sure much more than that about their religion, but some claim that they do not worship The Bright One at all. Many speak of a group of influential women in The Ring that meet at night to worship The Silver Lady under the night sky. Many women from the south and the west have also joined this sect over time, but in the north and in the east it is strictly forbidden, certainly because women play a much more subject role in those kingdoms. Some say that a terrible cult has been grown in numbers recently, of men and women that worship life and death in the most extreme of ways. From orgiastic cults to ritual suicide and sacrifice, these blood-stained people are wise enough to do their business in secrecy. No one is quite sure of why they do this, but it is said to be incredibly envigorating, granting them a power beyond that of common men. Those who claim to have learnt something about it affirm that it is an ancient religion that has been brought overseas by those that have visited The Wild Continent. As usual, most of these things might just be speculation.